This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Military issues

  • Taking on Ron Paul and his Supporters

    Rurik sends: Larry Bailey under fire. 

    From the linked article:

    Some of Ron Paul’s most avid (some say “rabid”) supporters are not friends of America.  The Marxist group “Code Pink” are frequent and vociferous supporters of the good congressman, as are “Iraq Veterans against the War,” a Soros-funded group that is sometimes violently opposed to any American intervention overseas, no matter how justified it may be.

    Code Pink, headed up by Medea Benjamin, shows up at any anti-American gathering that happens to have media (no pun intended) coverage scheduled.  That organization is frequently joined by IVAW in its pursuit of America-bashing.

    Now, Rep. Paul cannot be held totally responsible for who attends his rallies and who organizes his Iowa Straw Poll effort, but the public should not be kept in the dark about who it is that has become so close to the congressman.

    Rurik is referring to some of the comments there as the ‘fire’.  Larry’s seen much worse so I doubt he’s much moved, but it might be fun to join in if so inclined.

    Coupla caveats: Larry is a friend (as is Rurik) and I’m proud to say that I’m one of the dozen or so who helped pull off GoE-1, so I’ve seen much of what Larry describes. Secondly, much of what Larry discusses in his article is NOT news to regular TAH readers.

    Jonn adds:

    Code Pink supports Ron Paul

    Ron Paul supports Adam Kokesh

    Rand Paul endorses Kokesh

    Adam Kokesh and his upside down flag and IVAW banner at a Ron Paul rally in DC.

  • CPT Will Swenson: MOH nomination

    One of the guys at Ruptured Duck Blog wrote to let us know that one of his former team mates at 2/22 Infantry, of the 10th Mountain Division has been nominated for a Medal of Honor for the same action which Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer was awarded his MOH yesterday in the White House. The Army Times says;

    Swenson worked with Meyer under heavy enemy fire to recover the bodies and gear of four U.S. military trainers who had gone missing in the battle. Uncertain whether they were all dead, Meyer charged through enemy fire alone and on foot to find them. He found them shot to death and in a hillside trench at the outskirts of the village, in volatile Kunar province’s Sarkani district. Swenson assisted him in carrying the bodies and gear back to their Humvee.

    Meyer and Swenson already had braved enemy fire repeatedly in the battle while working to save other U.S. and Afghan forces, even after Army officers at a nearby tactical operations center repeatedly denied fire support they requested. On the last trip into the village to get the bodies, they rode a Humvee under fire with Marine 1st Lt. Ademola Fabayo and Marine Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, both of whom received the Navy Cross in June for their actions that day.

    Swenson, who left the Army in February, could not be reached for comment.

    Our friend at Ruptured Duck relates that Swenson is notoriously hard to get a hold of, even when he was a platoon leader.

    As an aside, Swenson also served with Dan Choi when they were both Platoon Leaders in the Triple Deuce, only Swenson never punched anyone in the chest.

  • Tampering with testimony

    The Daily Beast reports that an Air Force general’s testimony to a classified House committee was alterd by the WHite House in order to make that testimony favorable to a large donor;

    “There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony [of Gen. William Shelton] and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias his testimony,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said in an interview. “The only people who were involved in the process in preparation for the hearing included the Department of Defense, the White House, and the Office Management and Budget.”

    I can only imagine what the outcry would be if a Republican administration would try to interfere with Congressional oversight. General Shelton should be commended, however, for ignoring the pressure to change his testimony. I’m pretty sure his career is over though.

  • Bad Exit

    Someone posted this video at the Moatengators Facebook page. It’s a compliation of a bunch of weak aircraft exits;

    I guess my worse exit was when my team leader stopped in the door right in front of me and I went out on his back. As his static line whipped by my face, I pushed him away. After we got on the ground, I asked him WTF that was all about. He said that he’d never stopped to take in the view from the door before.

    Then there was the time on a Huey jump, I didn’t push off hard enough and my backpack hit the aircraft’s skid, sending me head over heels and twisting my suspension lines. By the time I’d bicycled out of the twists, I hit the ground like a ton of shit.

    I just remembered a story told by someone who saw it happen when one of the troops did his little hop out the door, and just as he did, the aircraft did a little fish tail thing and he landed right back on the little step thing. He looked around with a puzzled expression on his face and successfully hopped out the door on the second try. I wonder if that counts as two jumps?

    But, hey, that extra tax-free $55/month made it all worthwhile.

  • 14,000 rounds of ammo missing at Bragg

    The Fayetteville Observer reports that several thousand rounds of 5.56mm ammunition is unaccounted for from the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82d Airborne Division. I think that’s the “Devils in Baggy Pants”. Well, when I was there, the 1st Brigade was the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

    The 1st Brigade Combat Team was placed on lockdown for a few hours Wednesday night while officials searched for the ammunition, Ford said.

    The missing ammunition can be used in an M4 or M16 assault rifle, he said.

    The 82nd Airborne Division and military police were taking the situation seriously, Ford said.

    If they were locked down for a few hours, they got off lucky. I remember being locked down for days because a grenade was unaccounted for. 14,000 rounds of ammunition is pretty hard to hide.

    Hey, where was the Hillbilly Hunt Club Tuesday night?

  • Salon falls for BS again

    Someone sent us a link to a letter to Salon which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. The letter is entitled “I’m an Iraq veteran and I want to die“;

    I want to die because I can not seem to shake my addiction to violent pornography, child pornography, and stories and artwork of the same nature.

    […]

    From 2003 to 2008 I served in the Army. When I was in training I sexually assaulted a classmate (and a friend). I was shamed publicly, but for whatever reason this classmate did not press charges. That was the first time I ever touched a naked woman.

    […]

    When I deployed to Iraq I coped with stress in two ways: Masturbating to graphic violent pornography, Vipassana meditation (breathing meditation) and meditating on the possibility of my imminent death.

    […]

    My work in Iraq sometimes involved watching videos made by Iraqi militias and insurgents. In 2006 when I deployed there were many instances of sectarian torture and violence. I remember a video of a man whose eyes had been gouged out.

    […]

    A month into this terminal leave I received a call from my commander telling me to return for deployment. I had been stop-lossed. I disobeyed that order and was AWOL for two and a half years. I turned myself in about a year ago and received a general discharge under honorable conditions.

    […]

    I don’t seem to have any control over myself. I don’t understand many things. But I know pain. It is constantly with me. For my participation in these insane wars. For my weakness.

    Let’s recap, shall we? First he claims to have raped a woman while he was in training and he claims to have been forced by the Army to watch violent videos…not that he actually participated in violence (or surely he would have mentioned it) and somehow it’s all the Army’s fault. Then he mentions that he went AWOL and refused deployment to get the sympathy from the hippies at Salon and endear himself to them, and somehow that makes him a man of conscience even though he supposedly raped someone early in his military career.

    As TSO said, it sounds a lot like Matthis, but Matthis caught PTSD from listening to war stories, this guy, on the other hand, watched videos that the Army forced him to watch. Matthis was forced by peer pressure to rape a Filipino girl, while this guy raped a classmate by choice. They both refused deployment, but this guy didn’t make a big damn deal about it, didn’t testify to the administrative review board and got the same discharge as Matthis.

    Either way, they’re both full of shit.

  • Kyl threatens to quit super committee over defense cuts

    The Hill reports that Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has threatened to quit the so-called Super Committee which has been tasked to plan for $1.2 trillion in government spending over the next ten years unless the committee goes shopping elsewhere for spending cuts besides the Defense Department;

    Asked by The Hill whether he would support any defense cuts in a possible final supercommittee package smaller than the $600 billion threatened under that trigger, Kyl replied, “No.”

    […]

    The senator pointed out that if the Pentagon is forced to trim $950 billion from its base budget between 2013 and 2023, “that would kill defense.”

    Spending cuts to defense are the easy answer because Congress won’t pay a major price at the polls since cuts would effect a minority of voters in the short term. And then Democrats can always blame the next Republican president when he tries to rebuild our defense in reaction to these deep cuts.

    If Congress were to actually cut things that need cutting, like the Commerce Department, the Education Department, the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture Department, etc…, the sound bites during the next campaign wouldn’t be pretty. Not accurate, but not pretty either.

    Defense spending has no significant constituency.

  • Surprise! Gays want more

    I guess no one saw this coming, well, maybe, except for everyone (Washington Times link);

    In addition, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which led a long fight in Washington to repeal the ban, has written to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta urging him to extend military housing and other benefits to the same-sex spouses of personnel.

    “Provisions in the Defense of Marriage Act and other laws prohibit the Department of Defense from extending certain benefits, such as housing and transportation allowances, to same-sex partners,” said Pentagon spokesman George Little.

    “But a same-sex partner can be designated a beneficiary, for example, for life insurance. The department continues to examine benefits to determine any that may be changed to allow the service member the discretion to designate persons of their choosing as beneficiaries.”

    At this point, the military does not plan to recognize same-sex marriages, citing the act signed into law by President Clinton that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

    Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department this year decided not to defend the law against court challenges, but the Pentagon says it plans to follow the Defense of Marriage Act.

    Yeah, that may be indefensible in court…selectively enforcing the law. There’s this equal protection thing in the Constitution. Either enforce the law or don’t.

    But all of you who didn’t anticipate that gay groups saw getting DADT repealed was like the camel getting his nose under the tent please raise your hand. Yeah, I saw it coming, too. They didn’t want a “right” to serve…they could already serve under DADT. They wanted to force the military into complete acceptance of their lifestyle, and the lawyers wanted job security. It’s never going to end.